Decorating machines permit decorative artwork to be placed on the surfaces of various products. Known types of decorating machines use a rolling heat-transfer device, such as silicone rubber roller, to provide heat and pressure directly to a film containing the decorative artwork. The artwork from the film, which is engaged against the product, is removed from the film and attached to the product.
One problem with known decorating machines is due to the fact that they can only be used for a flat surface that has very little or no contouring or for a cylindrical surface (sometimes referred to as peripheral decorating). In other words, known decorating machines are limited to applying artwork to products with simple geometries. For products having a frustoconical shape, like cups or mugs, decorating machines have been designed to apply artwork to the specific geometry of the frustoconical surface of that product (i.e. they lack modularity to provide artwork to variety of frustoconical surfaces). For these types of more complex surfaces, like frustoconical surfaces, it is often more typical to use screen-printing or pad printing. However, compared to decorating machines, each of these types of printing is more complex and costly, and involves the use of inks and solvents that must be properly dried.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a single decorating machine that could be used to apply artwork to an array of products having a variety of frustoconical surfaces. The present invention satisfies this long-felt need.